The 2019 World Cup could be the final edition of the tournament that is contested by 20 teams with organisers intent on expansion.
It may be as early as France 2023 that an additional four nations are represented as World Rugby look to increase the reach of the game.
Hong Kong, Germany, Kenya and the Cook Islands are among the sides who might benefit from any enlargement, but chief executive Brett Gosper is aware of an important balance that must be struck.
“We’re always looking from an expansive point of view rather than reducing so it’s just a question of when rather than if,” World Rugby boss Gosper said.
“We want to make sure the teams are competitive enough to move to a 24-team tournament. We have assumed 20 for 2023 but we could change that between now and 2023.
“The tendency for us is to try and look to expand. It’s about growing the global game – getting interest from fans and commercial interest in new markets.
“But you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the teams. We’re definitely in an expansive mindset, is how I’d put it.”
Strengthening the expansionist cause would be the less established teams surpassing expectations at Japan 2019.
“If those teams had a good tournament it would give courage and impetus to change,” Gosper said.
World Rugby is keen to play down the prospect of a mismatch when the Pool B repechage winner – most likely Canada or Hong Kong – face all-conquering New Zealand in Oita on October 2.
“We’ll work hard after that team qualifies to ensure they’ve got all the technical coaches they need – as we do for each World Cup,” Gosper said.
“We are confident that team that qualifies will be competitive enough, even against the All Blacks.”
Meanwhile the owners of the clubs that comprise Premiership Rugby meet in London on Tuesday to discuss an offer from private equity to give up 51 per cent of the league in exchange for STG275 million.
Although World Rugby have no involvement in any part of the process, the global game’s governing body is monitoring developments closely.
“We’re keeping appraised of the situation and are having conversations with the Rugby Football Union. We’ll see how it plays out,” Gosper said.
“It’s an interesting occurrence but also a normal one. Elements of rugby are always in conversations about how they can raise the general funding of the sport to accelerate growth.”
soapit
Roar Guru
I dont know, reckon getting to play at a world cup and having 2 reasonably competitive matches is pretty good incentive on its own
soapit
Roar Guru
I dont think many nz ers would be eligible for Germany
soapit
Roar Guru
I dont see any good reason to stop players from representing any second nation if there's been a 5 year gap since they last represented a nation and satisfy the other eligibility requirements. Perhapsmake it they cant qualify on residency in those circumstances
ukkiwi
Roar Rookie
what a wonderful idea - i mean who can deny the resounding success following the expansion of Super Rugby. There's solid thinking of 'we have a premium product - lets do more, we could make more money. Doesn't matter if we water down our product we'll just sell more of it cheaper!' The problem is when it's too watered down it doesn't matter what the price is - no one will buy. There are not enough quality teams to justify a 20 team tournament - this is a ridiculous idea. If there's a concern about a blowout between someone like the AB's vs Canada imagine the AB's meeting Germany!?! The idea of having a cup/plate/bowl finals series is a nice theory but I imagine it would be a logistical nightmare and hugely expensive to stay on and compete for another three or four weeks. This could make the competition cost prohibitive for smaller unions - then what - do you replace them with the next best team who can afford to go? Crazy idea expanding this quality tournament and reducing its value.
Kunming Tiger
Roar Rookie
The most obvious beneficiaries of expansion would be Russia, Germany, Brazil and South Korea. For national teams to be competitive they would need to be intergrated into strong domestic competitions. it will be interesting to see what effect the formation of the MLR will have on the competitiveness of the US national team at RWC19.
CUW
Roar Rookie
Just like cricket - expand a world cup , then see a lot of useless matches , then contract . People need to understand that lot of these fringe teams are neither managed well , nor are experienced enough to take on the big teams. This is not about saying rugger has expanded to many countries so we must play more teams at a world cup. At least n cricket the top teams play some of the bottom teams fairly often - but do the top rugger teams play bottom teams at all? forget that - how often do the fringe teams play test rugger ? or any rugger? in a cohesive team game like rugger u need to play a lot to be competitive. forget the fringe teams - look at the Argies . how long have they been playing together to be this competitive? Then look a ta team like Italy - who despite playing some of the better teams every year , cannot just match anyone. bringing in fringe teams will affect the finances - it happened with cricket for sure and they ditched them . unlike cricket rugger world cups take a long time as it is - more teams means more time. will fall flat on the face and find hard to get up .... silly.
Machpants
Roar Guru
That's what all the regional comps amd repechage games are now
Hello
Guest
Tonga lost to Georgia. 4 or 5 average players would not turn them into world beaters.
Joe
Roar Rookie
Got to be careful with expansion. Sports always want to grow but it rarely works. Lots of examples, including super rugby...i would support a pre tournament of lower ranked nations. Let the top two teams from a pre tournanent through to RWC.
taylorman
Roar Guru
Yes 91 was notorious for liw scores across the tournament due to the many substandard grounds the matches were played on.
Barney
Roar Rookie
League is a different universe. I don't think anyone wants to see Germany trotting out a NZ D team for the sake of being competitive in the WC.
Barney
Roar Rookie
The problem is not so much the quality of the new teams even if obviously the odds of them winning against a Tier 1 nation is zero. The problem could be the composition of the teams and the regulations around player qualification. It cannot be a desired result when these new teams would probably actively recruit 'naturalised' exports from the southern hemisphere. Of course, this is complex as otherwise Japan would not be competitive at all and the Pacific islands have an unequal relationship with NZ/ Aus.
Wise Old Elf
Guest
Isn't Cook Is owned by Oz? Come to think of it Honkers is now owned by China. As for expanding the World Cup. I doubt there is enough depth out there to achieve it. A lot of 50 plus floggings to be expected.
Frank
Guest
Perhaps the World Cup and the World Plate. Have 4 pools of 6 teams. Pool 1 and 2 will have the 12 best teams, and pool 3 and 4 the other 12. The top 4 teams in pool 1 and 2 go to quarter finals. The remaining 4 teams across pool 1 and 2 play the top 2 teams in each pool 3 and 4 in the plate quarters.
terrence
Roar Rookie
frank's mom is part samoan..she vouched for her son that he qualifies for samoa..that's how frank got to play for manu samoa..
Chris
Guest
I bet the old guardians are the game are turning in there graves with all the money involved now. The product of Rugby is better now then the amateur era bit the culture back then was so much better.
Richard Lamb
Guest
Not sure if trolling? But pretty common knowledge in NZ, Frank Bunce is not and never was Samoan.
terrence
Roar Rookie
correction, world cup 2011
terrence
Roar Rookie
I wouldn't be too sure..tonga beat eventual runners-up france at world cup 07 with a team of no-names..
terrence
Roar Rookie
in the 100-plus years of samoan rugby, no non-samoan has ever played for manu samoa..